Brilliant BBQ Recipes to Eat with Meat

This entry was posted on May 30, 2015 by Camille.

This is the second of our BBQ recipes created to celebrate National BBQ Week.

There is no doubting that good quality meat can taste sensation if cooked well on a barbecue (please note my use of the word 'well'. I'm sure there will be more than a few sausages this Summer that will end up completely black on the outside and menacingly pink on the inside. These will not taste good).

But every good BBQ menu should also contain a selection of side dishes that compliment the meats and marinades you have chosen.

Man cannot live on meat alone, regrettable though that is.

Roasted Radish and Chickpea Salad

This unusual warm salad is a combination of roasted radishes and chickpeas, it's anything but bland! This salad packs quite a punch which means it goes well with meat and fish that that have been dressed quite simply. Serves 6

Goes Well With: Meat cooked in a light marinade such as herb and citrus. Also goes well with beef or lamb kebabs.

Ingredients

For the Salad

1 red onion, thinly sliced

80g green olives, cut in half

250g radishes, ends removed and sliced in half

3 beef tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 tin of chickpeas

400g mixed leaves or spinach

1 lemon

2tsp smoked paprika

1tsp cumin

2tsp hot chilli sauce such as sirrachha

2tbsp balsamic vinegar

For the Salad Dressing

1 clove of garlic

1 lemon

2tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp tahini

For the Croutons

100g stale bread, cut into chunks

2tbsp olive oil

How to make the salad

Preheat your oven to 200°C/ gas mark 6. Dress the radishes simply in a glug of oil, and a squeeze of lemon before roasting for 25-30 mins

While the radishes are roasting, macerate the red onion slices in the juice from the rest of the lemon and some salt. This will remove some of the harshness from the onion and make it more palatable.

Now make the dressing by crushing the garlic in a pestle and mortar, before adding the juice and zest of a lemon, then the balsamic, then finally the tahini and seasoning. Sometimes, stirring the tahini can make it go thick, but this is easy enough to combat by adding a tablespoon of water.

Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Fry the chunks of bread over a medium heat until toasted and crisp, then set aside.

Five minutes before the radishes are due to come out of the oven, heat the same frying pan to cook the chickpeas. A few will burst open during cooking, which adds a nice texture to the salad, Add the cumin and smoked paprika and cook for 4-5 mins, stirring regularly. Switch the heat off then add the chilli sauce (don't add it before as your kitchen will fill with chilli fumes that will make you choke!)

You are now ready to make up your salad. On a big board/tray, scatter your mixed leaves as a base. Combine the rest of the salad ingredients (olives, tomatoes, macerated onions, roasted radishes and fried chickpeas) in a big bowl, and dress with balsamic vinegar.

Scatter the warm ingredients over the salad leaves, then dress with the tahini sauce and croutons.